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Study shows tolerance and cooperative ties between male Guinea baboonsContests, threats, or ignoring one another: The relationships between male mammals are usually described in this or a similar way. The situation is quite different in humans where strong partnerships and close ties between unrelated men are widespread. Ranging from the joint construction of a hut up to the decisions of executive board members, there are countless examples that friendships among men bring decisive advantages and are a core ingredient of the complexity of human societies. In their recently published study, Julia Fischer and her colleagues from the German Primate Center (DPZ) in Göttingen found that male Guinea baboons are tolerant and cooperative towards their same-sex conspecifics, even if they are not related. In this way, males actively contribute to the cohesion of their multilevel Baboon society. Guinea baboons are therefore a valuable model to understand the social evolution of humans (Patzelt et al., 2014, PNAS).http://phys.org/news329553686.html
BiologyWed, 10 Sep 2014 08:00:01 ESTnews329553686Genome of clonal raider ant provides promising model to study social evolution and behaviorSocial insects, which usually have specialized behavioral groups (also called castes), are important models for social evolution and behavior researches. How division of labor in insect societies is regulated is an outstanding question and not fully understood yet. However, in many social insect species, experimental control over important factors that regulate division of labor, such as genotype and age, is limited. In a study published online on February 6th in Current Biology, researchers from Rockefeller University and BGI-Shenzhen have sequenced the genome of the queenless clonal raider ant Cerapachys biroi, a new model system to study the molecular mechanisms of social behaviors.http://phys.org/news311427902.html
BiologyWed, 12 Feb 2014 11:45:11 ESTnews311427902Ignorance is sometimes blissA range of examples suggests a lack of information about their fellows can favor cooperation and prevent conflict among animals—and even among genes.http://phys.org/news301735810.html
BiologyWed, 23 Oct 2013 08:30:33 ESTnews301735810Do beetles have maternal instincts?Hidden in the thick foliage of tropical forests a subfamily of colorful beetles hides the secrets of the earliest stages of social behavior, showing explicit signs of maternal instincts and care. An international team of scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Centro Universitário de Lavras, Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, and Université libre de Bruxelles looked into the complex subsocial behaviors present in the extraordinary Chrysomelinae subfamily to discover and describe in detail the different degrees of maternal instincts present within 8 species. The exciting insight into the biology of these species was published in the 4th "Research on Chrysomelidae" special issue of the open access journal Zookeys, alongside 6 other research articles on the family.http://phys.org/news299409574.html
BiologyThu, 26 Sep 2013 10:19:43 ESTnews299409574Ants turn unwelcome lodgers into a useful standing armyMercenary soldiers are notoriously unreliable because their loyalty is as thin as the banknotes they get paid, and they may turn against their employers before moving on to the next dirty job. Not so in fungus-farming ants, where a new study reports that permanent parasites that are normally a chronic social burden protect their hosts against a greater evil.http://phys.org/news297958980.html
BiologyMon, 09 Sep 2013 15:23:14 ESTnews297958980Coral reef fishes prove invaluable in the study of evolutionary ecologyAfter reviewing recent research based on the study of habitat-specialist coral reef fishes, Boston University post-doctoral researcher Marian Y. L. Wong and Peter M. Buston, assistant professor of biology, have found that these species have proven invaluable for experimental testing of key concepts in social evolution, noting that studies of these fishes already have yielded insights about the ultimate reasons for female reproductive suppression, group living, and bidirectional sex change. Based on this impressive track record, the researchers maintain that these fishes should be the focus of future tests of key concepts in evolutionary ecology. Their findings are published in an article titled "Social Systems in Habitat-Specialist Reef Fishes: Key Concepts in Evolutionary Ecology" in the June 2013 issue of the journal BioScience.http://phys.org/news287996101.html
BiologyFri, 17 May 2013 08:10:01 ESTnews287996101How men and women organize their (online) social networks differently(Phys.org)—Men and women socialize differently, and it turns out these gender differences hold true in online games that involve social interaction.http://phys.org/news279523889.html
Other SciencesFri, 08 Feb 2013 05:31:38 ESTnews279523889Ant executions serve a higher purpose, research showsNatural selection can be an agonizingly long process. Some organisms have a way of taking matters into their own hands, or—in the case of the ant species Cerapachys biroi—mandibles.http://phys.org/news278925779.html
BiologyFri, 01 Feb 2013 07:23:11 ESTnews278925779Humans were already recycling 13,000 years ago, research findsA study at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) reveals that humans from the Upper Palaeolithic Age recycled their stone artefacts to be put to other uses. The study is based on burnt artefacts found in the Molí del Salt site in Tarragona, Spain.http://phys.org/news267355589.html
Other SciencesThu, 20 Sep 2012 10:26:36 ESTnews267355589Fungus farming ant genome reveals insight into adaptation of social behaviorThe development of agriculture was a significant event in human cultural evolution, but we are not the only organisms to have adopted an agricultural way of life. In a study published online today in Genome Research, researchers have sequenced the genome of a fungus farming leaf-cutting ant, revealing new insights into the genetics and molecular biology behind this unusual lifestyle.http://phys.org/news228587657.html
BiologyWed, 29 Jun 2011 17:34:39 ESTnews228587657Scientists say natural selection alone can explain eusocialityScientists at Harvard University have sketched a new map of the "evolutionary labyrinth" species must traverse to reach eusociality, the rare but spectacularly successful social structure where individuals cooperate to raise offspring.http://phys.org/news201957206.html
BiologyWed, 25 Aug 2010 13:00:01 ESTnews201957206The ant queen's chemical crownThe defining feature of social insects is that societies contain queens, which specialise in laying eggs, as well as workers, which are mostly infertile but take care of the offspring and the nest. However, when the queen dies or is re-moved, workers begin laying eggs of their own. Previous observations have suggested that queens possess a specific pheromone which keeps the workers infer-tile, but the pheromone has never been identified except in the well-studied honeybee.http://phys.org/news197111491.html
BiologyWed, 30 Jun 2010 10:40:03 ESTnews197111491Game theoretic machine learning methods can help explain long periods of conflictResearchers at the Santa Fe Institute have developed new machine learning methods to study conflict. Their work appears in PLOS Computational Biology on May 13.http://phys.org/news192951729.html
Other SciencesThu, 13 May 2010 06:42:20 ESTnews192951729Plotting and treachery in ant royal familiesA team from the University of Copenhagen, led by postdoc Luke Holman of the Center for Social Evolution, describes in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, published on the 24 February 2010, that ant queens are much more devious than previously thought.http://phys.org/news186318178.html
BiologyThu, 25 Feb 2010 11:40:05 ESTnews186318178Termite creates sustainable monoculture fungus-farming(PhysOrg.com) -- Food production of modern human societies is mostly based on large-scale monoculture crops, but it now appears that advanced insect societies have the same practice. Our societies took just ten thousand years of (mainly cultural) evolution to adopt this habit and we are far from convinced that it is sustainable.http://phys.org/news177954268.html
BiologyFri, 20 Nov 2009 16:20:01 ESTnews177954268Poor money saving linked to general impulsivenessFinancial imprudence is linked to other impulsive behaviour such as overeating, smoking and infidelity, according to a new study led by UCL researchers, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.http://phys.org/news171192930.html
Medicine & HealthThu, 03 Sep 2009 10:36:04 ESTnews171192930The last supper of the hominids establishes the times they lived at the sitesIn the French cave of Arago, an international team of scientists has analyzed the dental wear of the fossils of herbivorous animals hunted by Homo heidelbergensis. It is the first time that an analytical method has allowed the establishment of the length of human occupations at archaeological sites. The key is the last food that these hominids consumed.http://phys.org/news166792637.html
Other SciencesTue, 14 Jul 2009 12:17:43 ESTnews166792637Texas-sized tract of single-celled clonesA Rice University study of microbes from a Houston-area cow pasture has confirmed once again that everything is bigger in Texas, even the single-celled stuff. The tests revealed the first-ever report of a large, natural colony of amoebae clones -- a Texas-sized expanse measuring at least 12 meters across.http://phys.org/news156000141.html
BiologyWed, 11 Mar 2009 14:22:48 ESTnews156000141